Snowballs and Kisses
by littlemissjily
Summary: Christmas is in the air, and snow is on the ground. And of course, the Marauders take this as an invitation to start a snowball fight. Seventh year, pre-dating. Jily Secret Santa gift to Shanthi! Cover art by viria13.


**A/N: I know, Jily Secret Santa was months ago. But I realized I never posted this. So, Happy-Super-Late Holidays, everybody! This is dedicated to Shanthi, since I was her Jily Secret Santa ;)**

**Oh, and unfortunately, I don't own these characters - they belong to their amazing creator, J.K. Rowling.**

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"I can't _believe_ McGonagall!" Marlene huffed, as she followed Lily and Alice down the hall. "It's _two days _before the break, and she assigns us a six-foot long essay on the methods of Untransfiguration? She's a slave driver!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Marlene, she did not _just_ assign this essay. She gave it to us two weeks ago."

Alice sat on the open window that overlooked the courtyard and let out a little laugh. "Yeah, but Marlene spent all of those two weeks meeting Sirius in broom cupboards so the essay completely slipped her mind until today."

Marlene frowned, stepping into the courtyard. "Hey, just because I've actually got a sex life whereas you two are completely deprived doesn't mean – "

"HEAD'S UP!"

The three girls whipped around, only for Marlene to be greeted face-first with a cold, wet snowball.

"Agh!" she screamed. "What the bloody hell was that?!"

Lily sighed, but her lips twitched into a slight smile, betraying her amusement. "One guess as to who's immature enough to be launching snowballs at innocent passer-byers in the dead of winter."

The three Gryffindors turned around to see – to no one's surprise – James and Sirius tackling each other to the ground, launching snowballs at one another, while Remus chuckled and Peter clapped and jumped up and down.

"Prongs, you tosser! You hit my girl!" Sirius shouted.

"I'll give you a hint," Lily said unnecessarily. "You're sleeping with one of them, Marls."

"Yeah, and Lily wishes she was sleeping with the other," Alice whispered loudly over to Marlene. Marlene grinned and Lily glared at her two insufferable friends.

"You're mental," she hissed back, hoping her blush wasn't as obvious as she thought it was.

"And you're in denial," Marlene retorted.

"I'm not – "

"Oh Lily-flower!"

Lily whipped around…

… and was greeted with a face-full of snow. She could hear Alice and Marlene giggling beside her, and wiped the cold off her now sopping face.

"Ha! You get my girl, I get yours, Prongsy-boy!" Sirius cried gleefully, just loud enough for James to hear.

Even from this distance, the girls could see James' face flush red. "She's not _my girl, _Padfoot."

"James!" Lily yelled. "What the bloody hell was that for?! As Head Boy you're not supposed to be throwing snowballs around at innocent students!"

"Hey!" James cried, offended. "That wasn't me! That one was Sirius."

"Prongsy! How dare you try to blame it on me. It was him, Lily-kins!" Sirius called out. "He's just afraid of your wrath."

Lily narrowed her eyes. "Here," she said, unceremoniously dumping her books in Alice's arms. "Hold my books."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

Lily crouched to the ground and started picking up snow, a smirk sliding across her face.

"Payback."

Out of nowhere, she stood up and launched the ball of snow right at James, hitting him square in the face.

There was a deadly silence. Everyone just stared at Lily for a while, not quite believing that the seemingly goody-goody Head Girl just broke her moral code. And then Remus cracked a grin, Peter snickered, and Alice and Marlene went into hysterics, falling on the ground laughing. James sputtered, but Sirius ran over to Lily and hugged her.

"My hero," he cried, grabbing her hand and raising it up in the air like she was a champion. "Took down Prongsy-boy with one hard throw."

Lily grinned and mock-curtsied.

James looked on with poorly concealed amusement.

"Oh, you have no idea what you've just started, Lils," he called out. "Prepare to be vanquished!"

"I'm not afraid of you, Potter!" she shouted back. "Bring. It. On."

And he did. He ran towards her, packing snow and throwing it at her as he went, and she ducked and took cover behind Alice and Marlene, getting them caught in the crossfire.

"James!" Alice screeched. "You hit me!"

"There are casualties in war, Alice!" Sirius cried.

Marlene responded by launching more snowballs at him, but missed completely and hit Peter instead. Soon the whole courtyard was in uproar, snowballs flying back and forth, missing targets and hitting others, drawing more people into the never-ending battle.

Lily ducked behind an old oak tree, barely missing the snowball James threw at her head.

"You'll never catch me alive, James Potter!" she bellowed. She leaned down and scooped up some snow and duck out from the tree – only to be tackled to the ground.

"Agh!" Lily squealed. "James, get off of me! You're crushing me!"

"Not until you surrender!" he cried.

She let out a breathy laugh and wriggled under his grip, desperately trying to ignore her pounding heart.

_He doesn't like you like that, _she told herself. _You're just friends._

He got a whiff of her strawberry-scented hair and had the strongest urge to kiss her senselessly.

_She doesn't like you like that, _he reminded himself. _You just became friends._

Lily sighed and stopped squirming, trying and failing to stop the grin from sliding onto her face.

James smirked, noticing her defeat. "So, do you –"

She looked up at him with her brilliant green eyes and he thought he was going to die on the spot.

He looked down at her with his warm hazel eyes with the smirk slipping off his face and his windswept hair and she just about melted.

For a long time, they just stared at each other, and Lily swore that he started to lean in a little closer…

_If he kisses me, _she thought to herself. _I just hope he never stops._

James leaned in a little further, careful not to put too much weight on her.

_If I kiss her, _he thought to himself. _I just hope she kisses me back._

He stopped moving less than an inch away from her lips, hesitating, but before he could muster up the courage, she closed the distance between them… and they were kissing, _finally_ kissing. And he thought he was dreaming and everything he wished for was coming true, and she thought she'd never been this awake before. And he felt like he was drowning in an ocean of happiness, and she felt like she was burning with passion. And neither could think of anything else but the other.

_I could stay like this forever, _they both thought.

And they might have, if not for Sirius. Only mere moments after they started kissing – though it felt like days to the both of them – a snowball came out of nowhere and hit James on the back of the head.

"Oi!" Sirius shouted. "None of that out here! There are little ones who don't need to be corrupted by your… indecency!"

James growled, whipping around to face his so-called friend. "That's rich coming from you, Black, considering you've been doing much more than _that _in _broom cupboards_!"

But it was as if Sirius didn't even hear him. He just turned around towards his friends and cried, "Okay, I said he would make a move before the holidays, so Remus, Peter and Alice – pay up."

"What about Marlene?" Peter demanded.

Marlene grinned. "I was on Sirius's side, remember? No way James could have gone any longer without making a pass at her. Bloody git has been obsessed with her for too long."

"Oi!" James protested, as Lily stared on in disbelief. "You bet on us?!"

Alice laughed at his incredulity. "James, honestly. Did you expect us to listen to the both of you wallow about your never-ending love for each other and not make any money off of it?"

Lily growled. "Some friend you are, Prewett!"

Alice just blew her a kiss while Lily grumbled under her breath.

James turned to her. "We have gits for friends, don't we?"

Lily laughed, and James smiled.

"Your laugh is like music," he said dreamily.

Lily just laughed harder, and he smiled sheepishly.

"Cheesy line?"

"Just a tad, _Prongsy_," she teased.

With a grin, he tackled her back to the ground and pinned her down, leaning in close enough to brush his lips against hers.

"So," he whispered. "Does this mean that I'm your boyfriend now?"

"Do you want _me_ to be _your_ girlfriend?" she responded breathlessly.

He snorted. "Of course, Lils. Always have."

She flushed red and smiled from ear to ear. "Then yes," she murmured. "You're my boyfriend."

He grinned and closed the distance between them, when, suddenly, Lily grabbed a handful of snow and crushed it on top of James's head. Grinning, she slipped out of his grasp while he sputtered in shock, and she ran away, ducking behind a tree to stock up on more snowballs.

"Take that, James Potter!" she bellowed.

Recovering from his shock, James finally laughed and, grinning, followed suit while their friends ran over to join the fun.

And as Lily glanced over at James – her _boyfriend_, she gleefully reminded herself – from behind the cover of her tree, she only wondered why this had taken them so long.

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**A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to leave behind a review and check out my other stories. You can follow me on tumblr at cheesebunsandsnitches dot com, where you can pester me about how long I take to write new stories (seriously, I don't mind).**


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